Nigeria's 'Democracy Dividends'
NIGERIA'S 'DEMOCRACY DIVIDENDS'
The nation’s literary clan went agog recently when it generously expended kilometers of expensive newsprint and megawatts of electronic media energy on what looked like a stock-taking ritual in commemoration of the second year of the Obasanjo regime. One by one, all the learned commentators who mounted the podium had something to say about the status of the regime’s half time scorecard. And depending on the analyst’s loyalty, it was possible to make a general classification of the various conflicting verdicts which ranged from the most charitable by those who think that things have changed for the better in Nigeria since the inauguration of the new democracy to those less charitable who lamented that, if anything, the lot of the average citizen has actually deteriorated pitiably since then. It was however clear that no one, not even the usually loud government megaphones, had the audacity to proclaim that it has all been rosy as they could only mutely harp on the old refrain of the arrival of ‘democracy dividends’, whereas, with proper contextualization of the Nigerian reality, it is indeed possible to say that we are making progress since there are mounting evidence everywhere that the nation is hankering after some positive developments. By an accounting metaphor, the nation might not have made profits yet out of her democracy enterprise but it has undoubtedly broken even. As for the declaration of dividends, I am not too sure about that for dividends, as a form of reward for success, cannot be lawfully paid out when the business is not doing very well. What appears to be the frustration of Nigerians may indeed be the result of a baseless and premature very high expectation. While we glibly boast of a return to democracy, no one has asked what indeed are the incidents of democracy. What happened in May 1999, on a proper reflection, is at best a bold step towards the establishment of a democracy in Nigeria BUT certainly
The nation’s literary clan went agog recently when it generously expended kilometers of expensive newsprint and megawatts of electronic media energy on what looked like a stock-taking ritual in commemoration of the second year of the Obasanjo regime. One by one, all the learned commentators who mounted the podium had something to say about the status of the regime’s half time scorecard. And depending on the analyst’s loyalty, it was possible to make a general classification of the various conflicting verdicts which ranged from the most charitable by those who think that things have changed for the better in Nigeria since the inauguration of the new democracy to those less charitable who lamented that, if anything, the lot of the average citizen has actually deteriorated pitiably since then. It was however clear that no one, not even the usually loud government megaphones, had the audacity to proclaim that it has all been rosy as they could only mutely harp on the old refrain of the arrival of ‘democracy dividends’, whereas, with proper contextualization of the Nigerian reality, it is indeed possible to say that we are making progress since there are mounting evidence everywhere that the nation is hankering after some positive developments. By an accounting metaphor, the nation might not have made profits yet out of her democracy enterprise but it has undoubtedly broken even. As for the declaration of dividends, I am not too sure about that for dividends, as a form of reward for success, cannot be lawfully paid out when the business is not doing very well. What appears to be the frustration of Nigerians may indeed be the result of a baseless and premature very high expectation. While we glibly boast of a return to democracy, no one has asked what indeed are the incidents of democracy. What happened in May 1999, on a proper reflection, is at best a bold step towards the establishment of a democracy in Nigeria BUT certainly